IMMIGRATION officials at
OR Tambo have, on several
occasions recently, asked
travellers to pay bribes, travel
agents have told TNW.
“We had two clients flying
from OR Tambo who were
stopped and told they didn’t
have the correct paperwork,”
travel consultant, Louisa
Matthee, commented on
eTNW. She says her clients
were told that if they paid
the immigration official
R2 000 they would be allowed
to proceed to boarding.
Yumna Kharodia, md of
Sweet Life Travel, says when
clients refuse to pay bribes,
they are detained at
immigration. She says one of
her clients recently booked a
ticket to attend a funeral in
Pakistan. The client arrived at
the airport early, completed
check-in and proceeded to
immigration. The official then
demanded a bribe, saying the
client’s papers were “not in
order”.
When Yumna’s client refused
to pay, he was taken to an
office to have his documents
checked. Although all his
documents were in order, he
was detained for so long that
he missed his flight, had to
pay no-show fees and had to
rebook another flight next day.
“This is the third incident
we’ve had in three months
where clients have been
delayed at immigration and
missed their flights because of
corruption,” says Yumna.
June Crawford, Barsa ceo
– who says these instances
of corruption at immigration
are mostly isolated cases –
advises clients to immediately
report any requests for bribes
to the Home Affairs manager
on duty.
Clients can also record the
counter number, the time of
the incident, and the name of
the official and once through
immigration, report the incident
to the Acsa Help Desk who
will request assistance from
security officials so that the
offence can be reported to
SAPS, says ceo of Aasa, Chris
Zweigenthal.
